UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Margaret Satterthwaite on Friday stated that Guatemala’s legal system is at a turning point, stressing that the country’s democratic future depends on whether upcoming judicial appointments are handled with transparency and whether criminal law is applied fairly and without political interference. Satterthwaite raised alarm over [...]

The US Supreme Court split evenly Thursday over a challenge to the attempted establishment of the country’s first religious charter school, leaving in place a ruling from the Oklahoma Supreme Court that found the proposed Catholic charter school unconstitutional. The US Supreme Court’s opinion did not explain its ruling. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself [...]

Army-backed militias, collectively known as the “Wazalendo,” committed widespread human rights abuses against civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday. HRW accused the Congolese military (FARDC) of collaborating with the militias in the South Kivu province and urged Congolese authorities to sever ties with the [...]

A federal judge in California issued a nationwide preliminary injunction on Thursday to prevent further terminations of the legal statuses of international students living and working across the US. Judge Jeffrey S. White of the US District Court of the Northern District of California stated that President Donald Trump’s administration acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” and [...]

Amnesty International reported on Friday that women participating in protests against the government in Georgia have been subjected to intimidation, harassment, and gender-based physical and psychological violence by state authorities. In addition to searches of detained protestors, the rights group stated there has been a growing tendency of arbitrary house and office searches, stop-and-search practices [...]

Former director of the US Copyright Office Shira Perlmutter filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday for improper termination after she was fired earlier this month. Perlmutter filed her complaint with the US District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that her termination was unconstitutional and cannot take effect. She further [...]

A US federal judge for the District Court of Massachusetts on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from banning Harvard College’s enrollment of international students. Judge Allison Burroughs granted Harvard’s motion for a temporary restraining order and effectively enjoined the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from revoking Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) [...]

Ghana’s Chief Justice, her ladyship Getrude Sackey Torkornoo filed a petition on Wednesday challenging her recent suspension. The petition was filed against the Attorney General and five other members of the investigation committee. In her petition, she argued that a Chief Justice who is called upon to participate in a hearing regarding removal from office [...]

The UK on Thursday signed an agreement to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and lease back the Diego Garcia military base, critical to the UK and the US, for an average of 101 million pounds per year, to be phased in incrementally over a period of 99 years. Diego Garcia has played a [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged the authorities in the Central African Republic on Thursday to drop the charges against detained journalist Landry Ulrich Nguéma Ngokpélé, calling for his immediate release. CPJ representative for Francophone Africa, Moussa Ngom, stated: “The charges against Landry Ulrich Nguéma Ngokpélé over a publication in his newspaper send a [...]